Sunday, January 11, 2009

Is that IT workers will be introduced to some of the same standards that the rest of the world lives by. What I mean by that is this: around here there are companies that offer their computer people benefits beyond anything that is even conceivable elsewhere in an effort to make them as creative as they can. One company, profiled in Seattle Living, had masseurs on hand, a weekly party with alcohol provided by the company on Fridays, and a property in the Caribbean that people who worked there got a set amount of days they could go to. I've also ran into people whose companies have monthly optional concerts where the employees who are in bands on the weekends can bring their instruments into the company and play for folks. On top of that you have the most informal work environments that you could imagine, with all sorts of craziness and wittiness being not grounds for dismissal but instead being thought of as not a big deal if the payoff is productive and creative employees. It seems that with some of these companies the employees have everything but a stable of hookers who give out free blow jobs at lunch in order to defuse tension. But, ah, with the economy going south all of that may change.

No more free massages, no more parties. "We have to think of the bottom line you know and times are tough now....You don't like it? That's sort of tough. If you want to be an employee here you're going to have to accept it." Point being that people get fired for much, much less than these people are allowed and encouraged to engage in at work. Now they may get a reality check.